Berlin, September 26: Osama bin Laden cast his shadow over Germany’s election campaign on Friday with a message apparently timed to spook the authorities, already on their guard after a series of threatening al Qaeda videos.
In an audio tape released with both English and German subtitles, the al Qaeda leader urged Europeans to end their alliance with the United States and pull their troops out of Afghanistan.
He did not threaten new attacks or name Germany, although he appeared to refer to it with a comment about economic troubles in “the heart of Europe”.
The timing — two days before a federal election — and the pointed inclusion of a German translation looked calculated to send a threatening signal to voters.
In three videos in the past week, an al Qaeda member known as Abu Talha the German has promised the country a “rude awakening” if its 4,200 troops remain in Afghanistan.
Police in the southern city of Stuttgart said on Friday they had arrested a 25-year-old Turkish man suspected of posting one of the videos on the Internet.
“There is currently a very high threat of an attack occurring in Germany or against German interests in the immediate period and extending for at least the next four weeks,” Ben Venzke of U.S. monitoring group IntelCenter said in a commentary on the bin Laden message.
Paul Cruickshank, a fellow at the Center on Law and Security at New York University’s School of Law, said: “This message seems very much directed at Germany. Al Qaeda is trying to turn up the heat on Germany over Afghanistan ahead of the elections.”
The videos had already prompted Germany to step up security at airports and train stations before the vote, in which conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to win re-election.
“We’ve raised security to a level appropriate for the scenario and it will stay at this level for the time being,” Interior Ministry spokesman Stefan Paris told a government news conference on Friday before the arrest was announced.
He said the government was taking the bin Laden video “very seriously”.
“The authorities are clearly very nervous. You can see the heightened security presence, especially at American installations in Germany,” said Guido Steinberg of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday took the unusual step of warning Americans in Germany to be vigilant.
Unlike other European countries such as Britain or Spain, Germany has not experienced a major attack by Islamist militants on home soil in recent years, although authorities say they have thwarted plots here.
In 2004, Islamist militants killed 191 people with bombs placed on Madrid commuter trains three days before a Spanish general election.
“Germany is a federal country so there are significant potential targets all over the place,” said Peter Neumann, director at the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College London. “But the focus of concern is on transport hubs, especially in view of the Spanish precedent — subways, buses, trains and airports.”
–Agencies